BYU vs. Utah State postgame notes and quotes

Player Notes

Tyler Haws finished with 27 points to lead all players for his 19th game with 20-plus points and 26th in double figures.
Brock Zylstra finished with 10 points for his 9th game in double figures.
Brandon Davies finished with 10 points for his 27th game in double figures.
Tyler Haws reached double-digit points with a free throw at the 3:56 mark in the first half to put BYU up 31-23.
Brock Zylstra reached double-digit points with a jumper at the 15:39 mark in the second half to put BYU up 48-37.
Brandon Davies reached double-digit points with a free throw at the 1;49 mark in the second half to put BYU up 68-63.
Tyler Haws now has 991 career points, just 9 shy of joining BYU’s 1,000-point club.
Brandon Davies now has 1,539 career points, good for 12th place all-time, and is 30 points away from moving into 11th place.

Team Notes

Dave Rose started Brandon Davies, Tyler Haws, Brock Zylstra, Craig Cusick and Matt Carlino tonight for the second time this season.
Tonight’s lone dunk came from Brock Zylstra at the 15:55 mark in the first half.
BYU led Utah State 41-32 at halftime for its 19th halftime lead this season.
BYU now has 20 wins this season for its eighth-straight 20-win year and all under head coach Dave Rose.

Game Trends

BYU started the game back-to-back 3-pointers from Brock Zylstra and Tyler Haws, giving the Cougars a 6-4 lead after 2 minutes of play.
Between 15:55 and 13:26 in the first half, BYU went on a 6-0 run to take a 13-7 lead.
Between 10:21 and 7:49 in the first half, BYU went on a 10-0 run to take a 25-15 lead.

BYU head coach Dave Rose
“The final play was what we drew up. We thought we would get a little more penetration off that ball screen, so that would allow us to see if they would give help. That would open up the corners or allow Matt to take it all the way to the rim. We got a clean look though. It didn’t go in, but with the time difference, we could send all five guys to the glass. We sent them all in, and Craig got a clean look. That was a huge basket for him. This was a big win for our team.

“On that last play, the first thing was we didn’t want to foul. You know they have to tip it to get it in. The worse scenario is they score and we go into overtime, or they tip a three in, but that is kind of a long shot.”

Craig Cusick
On making the last-second shot
“It’s hard to explain. As a player you couldn’t dream it any better. Coach called a great play. I ran to where I thought it was going to come off and I was fortunate the ball came to me. It’s great that I made the shot, but I have to give credit to my teammates who pulled us through the rest of the way.”

Tyler Haws
“They are a physical team. We knew that coming in, and they battled their way back into it. We didn’t play that well in the second half. We have been in this situation before but on the losing end, so it feels really good to come out on top.”

Utah State head coach Stew Morrill
“If you look at the stats, we did a lot of things right. Our defense was pretty good and our rebounding was pretty good. We turned the ball over way too much and missed free throws — that’s why we got beat. Our guys fought really hard in the second half. Give BYU credit though, they made a heck of a play at the end of the game.”